


Phoenix from Cold Ashes

by Ghostsaberwolf



Category: Atomic Blonde (2017)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-05-01 03:37:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14511699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostsaberwolf/pseuds/Ghostsaberwolf
Summary: Lorraine, Delphine, and David work to recover their lives after the fall of the wall and the end of the Cold War.





	1. Fractured

Lorraine could practically feel the fight happening. Delphine was outweighed, outgunned, and almost entirely untrained. Not a chance in the world. Percival... He'd been spying for too long not to be lethal. Especially without a handler to keep him halfway sane. She couldn't trust luck to keep Delphine alive. Luck couldn't do a damn thing to save anyone, not since James...

There was still movement. Maybe still time. A gunshot and a kick takes the door off its hinges. Delphine is gasping on the floor, hand to her throat. Where-?

 

David was still reeling, even as he bore down on the girl. Lorraine... She had betrayed everything she had stood for, played everyone, including her own people. And Delphine had helped, somehow, he was sure of it.

A gun goes off. He knows he has only a second, and he drops her, moving out of sight of the door. Lorraine was a pro, she was trained, he needed every advantage he could get, especially with the knife still in his back.

 

Delphine lay on the floor, her vision fading back and forth between her room and darkness, in time with her gasping breath. She could hear the fight going on, almost right next to her. She couldn't weigh in, could barely breathe, never mind fight. When her eyes could finally focus, the first thing she sees is the gun. Mindless, she grabs it, pulls the hammer back, and screams, "Nobody fucking move!"

The pair of them fall apart, staring daggers at each other, Percival still bleeding, Broughton showing a few new bruises. Delphine can't decide who to fully trust, settling for just pointing the gun in their general direction. "Now tell me what the FUCK is going on, and I swear, if you lie to me, I'll kill you both."  
David laughs. "You think that means a fucking thing to her?" He snorts again. "She's been lying and killing-"

"Like you're any better," Delphine spits at him. "Shut the fuck up unless you've got something important to say." She looks at Lorraine. "Tell me what the hell is going on. Please. I can't... Please don't lie to me."

Lorraine stares down the barrel of the gun and thinks for a moment. Truth... It had been a long time since she had given anyone much of it, especially without a healthy course of lies to cover it up and twist it until it might as well have been a lie. It could save her.

It could damn her, too.

Fuck it.

"I've spent the majority of my career playing double agent," she begins. "Eventually, I earned the code name Satchel..."

 

"Holy fucking hell..." David says a while later. "That... That is some master fucking puppetry."

"That... That is one word for it," Delphine agrees, body slack, the gun almost forgotten.

"It was necessary," Lorraine answers. "The war needs to end. It all does. And this was the only way to do it without blowing up the whole FUCKING world. If I need to die for that to happen, fine. I've plenty of dead waiting to see me."

"No one dies tonight," Delphine says quietly. "No one. I... The plan can still work. The war can still end."

"How do you fucking figure?" David interjects. "She's made, big time. I still have a tiny grain of loyalty, and I won't-"

"Shut the fuck up, Percival," Lorraine cuts in quietly. "The war helps no one. It just kills people for no reason, and I'm tired of it. The secrets need to end."

"We all need out," Delphine says. "Before this gets us all killed."

"Agreed. But it's not that simple."

"No fucking shit."

"Percival-"

"Shut up, Brough-"

"Enough, both of you!" Delphine yells, head in her hands. "God, it's like you've decided you have to kill each other over sharing different opinions on the same goal. This is what spying does to you. I... No more. I won't fucking have it."

"What do you propose, then, love?" David asks. "We can't just say 'no fucking more' and walk. They'll find us."

"What was the plan, Lorraine?" She turns to the other woman, hoping for an answer that can save them all. "How did you plan to get out of all this?"

Lorraine leans her head back, breathing deeply. "I was planning to leave as little evidence behind as possible, then meet up with my Russian 'handlers.' They would try to kill me, and the CIA would clean up the mess I left behind. MI6 would debrief me, but since Satchel," she looks at Percival pointedly, " would be dead, they wouldn't be able to complain, list or no list. I would go home, hopefully retire."

"Hell of a fucking plan," Percival says, chuckling in spite of himself. "Thank God it didn't work."

"Says who?" Delphine says, gears turning. "You can disappear. You have the contacts for it. We go underground, long enough for her to finish the mission. Long enough for the war to end. The wall is down. The war can't be too much longer."

The veteran spies reel a moment, unbelieving. Could... Maybe it could work. Maybe there really could be a life for them outside this.

"All right," David says, extending a hand to Lorraine. "I'm in." She looks at him skeptically for a moment, then her shoulders sag and she takes his hand.

"Me, too."


	2. Delphine's David- A Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delphine and David start trying to put pieces together.

Delphine and David walk down the street together two days later, surveying the wreckage of the wall as it's cleared away.

"Where do you think she is right now?"

"Langley, probably," David answers. "She does have a number of people to answer to."

"True..." She falls silent, holding in her emotions. "I miss her more than I expected."

"Me, too. Whatever else she is, she helped us both." He catches himself, corrects himself. "Saved us both. Probably more than she admitted."

"Of course. It's her way." Delphine turns to him, eyes piercing. "Yours, too."

He laughts. "Berlin is the city of four-faced liars, Phi. Or it was before that," he says, gesturing at the ruined wall. "We all did more than we would ever admit to, especially to the people 'in charge' of us."

"Maybe. But maybe the only way to heal is to admit it all."

"'The truth will set you free' line of thinking?"

"No. The truth will help you heal."

"You should've been a poet."

She smiles. "Or maybe a rock star."

David grins back. "I know a lovely little karaoke pub a few blocks from here. Shall we?" He offers her his arm.

She smiles, taking it. "Why not?"

 

They walk their way over, and David insists on buying a round of drinks. He keeps her amused and laughing until she's on her third one. Finally, he talks her into singing one herself. He keeps laughing until the first notes of 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' start playing.

"You always live your life, never thinking of the future," she sings, and he could swear she's looking right through him. "Prove yourself." He had. Multiple times. "You are the move you make." A killer, a liar, a thief. A scoundrel. He stews in self loathing and drowns in it, wishing he could crawl out of his own skin and leave his sins behind.

Until she's leaning down right in front of him and singing softly.

"My love said never question your will at all." He looks again, and he can see something in her eyes. Not understanding, she couldn't understand, not without living it. But something like forgiveness. Not for what he'd done, but for who he'd been. An acknowledgement that he was changing. He rides that current with her, letting her wash away the filth of his past. His heart seems to break and heal at the same time as she sings the last lines.

"Don't deceive your free will at all," she says to him, "Just receive it."

The whole room erupts into applause as the song ends, and she gently taps his nose with a wink before handing the microphone to the next person. He watches her swagger back over to him, smirking, and he can't decide whether to kiss her or yell at her.

"I told you I could play this game better than you think, David," she says to him. "I didn't mean what you thought I did, I know."

"And what did I think you meant, love?" he asks, taking a long drag from his third cigarette since she'd gotten on stage.

"You thought I was condemning you."

"You were."

"I wasn't. I was reminding you of what you are."

"And what am I, other than a spy?"

"A free man. Freer than you've ever been. Time to realize it, I think."

"What's freedom get me, other than not having a government backing me up?"

"The chance to be what you want, not what you need."

He doesn't have an answer for that one. Not a real one. "A poet, for sure. You're talking me in circles, and I've no idea what you're talking about."

She rolls her eyes. "You do, and it terrifies you. You're a rebel with no cause, nothing to truly rebel against, now. You're aimless, and you're not quite the hedonist you pretend to be, David, no matter how much you try."

"Prove it."

"Half your alcohol has ended up on your face. Not because you're drunk, but because you can't stand the taste. And you haven't noticed I'm not drunk, despite being on my third drink, because you're too busy watching everyone else to realize I've been pouring my drinks into your glass."

His eyes widen, and he looks down at his glass, fuller than when he'd set it down. Goddammit, he'd never seen her do it. "What's your point?"

"It's time to realize you died. And to start finding who was born."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Would the man you were two weeks ago be doing this now?"

"How about who you were?"

"I was already dying," Delphine answers placidly. "I was a translator who wanted to become a spy for the glamor of it. And when I became a spy, I saw what came with it, and I didn't want anything to do with any of it. But I had less guilt to leave behind and fewer scars to try and heal."

"And yet you're trying to help the man who gave you most of them," Percival says, not even bothering to hide the self loathing in his voice.

"That's the game, isn't it?" She smiles at him again, warm and gentle. "We cheat and we lie and we do things that don't make any sense for a goal that might not be attainable."

"Is that what you're doing?"

"Is that what you're doing?"

"I asked first."

"Your answer is the one that means more."

"Fuck you."

"Truth still hurts, doesn't it?"

He glares at her. "Why didn't I kill you again?"

"You did try."

A wince. "I'm sorry. I never apologized..."

Phi grins and her eyes light up. "The real question is: who is the apology more important to, you or me?"


	3. Lori

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lorraine takes her first step into a larger world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, guys. Life got kinda crazy, but hopefully this is back to semiregular updates. Enjoy!

Lorraine gets off the plane in Berlin, tired, wrung out, and somehow still managing to be elated. Satchel was done. Her masterwork was complete. Somehow, the CIA was even letting her have time off, with her pay. Of course, they didn't know she wasn't planning to come back, but she'd deal with that when the time came. In the meantime, this was the closest she'd come to vacation in a long time. Time to enjoy it.

She hails a cab, and immediately, a beat up old car pulls up to the curb and a man leans his head out the window.

"Mr. Percival said to expect you, miss," he says cheerily, his English thickened by the German accent she hadn't realized she'd missed . "He and his lady are waiting for you at their usual spot."

"His lady?" Lorraine asks, smiling as she pulls her bag into the back of the cab with her. "I wasn't aware he had one."

"Nor was anyone else until recently," her driver says, quietly turning on the radio and tapping his fingers in time with the music. "But the two of them make quite the pair. Miss Phi keeps him from losing himself to his drink, and he keeps her from getting in too deep with any of the more...was ist das verdammte wort... suspicious, I guess, of the locals."

"They sound like a good pair."

"Seems to me they're missing something," the cabby says, looking at her in the rearview mirror. "Might be why they're so excited to see you come here."

"I didn't think Mr. Percival the kind to get clearly excited about much."

"Not to people who don't know him, miss. But I know what to look for. And I've never seen him quite so antsy as when he heard your flight was coming in today."

"I'd be very interested to know how he heard what flight I was on."

"Man seems to know everyone in the city. Not surprised he might know a few more outside it." He pulls in to a parking space next to a pub. "This is where he said to bring you. I believe he said your room was upstairs, last door on the left."

"Thank you, Herr...?"

"Albert, miss, please. Not much one for formality, just politeness. And as he didn't give me a name, I haven't asked for one."

Lorraine pauses for a moment, struck by a thought. The war was over. She could use her real name, but that would leave a trail. Fuck it, she hadn't done all of this to completely lose everything of who she was.

"Lori. It's been a pleasure, Albert."

"Likewise, Miss Lori. You be careful, now. This city isn't always kind to strangers."

She smiles. "No need to worry, Albert. I'm no stranger to Berlin."

 

The room is small, but perfectly adequate. She stows her things away neatly, thinking she almost wouldn't mind living here semipermanently before she catches herself. That thought, tempting as it is, really isn't on the table right now. She would have to stay hidden, quiet, until she had no reason to fear.

On the other hand, the list... Maybe. She walks into the bathroom, considering options and schemes, until she notices a note taped to her mirror, in Delphine's handwriting. Lorraine smiles at the familiar, loopy writing.

"We're running a few errands. After all, the game isn't quite over. Tonight, nine o'clock, your place. Don't keep us waiting." She'd left a perfect lipstick print on the paper and drawn a heart around it. Very much the artist's touch that had drawn the two of them together in the first place.

Nine o'clock rolls around and Lorraine heads to the stairs, enjoying the butterflies in her stomach for the first time in a long time. This wasn't a mission. This was a date. Granted, not a typical one, but this was about as close as she was ever likely to get, at least for a long time. Lorraine Broughton hadn't done anything for the sheer hell of it, and it was lovely to feel that armor start to crack.

Delphine and Percival were waiting, as promised, standing by the bar and seemingly holding court, as impossible as that seemed. They were supposed to be in hiding, after all, but then again, she knew how unswervingly loyal some people could be, especially under circumstances like theirs. Still, it bore investigating.

 

Phi sees Lorraine coming down the stairs and nudges David in the ribs. "Here she comes," she murmurs to him, her voice warm with excitement.

"That she does," he replies, eyes echoing her tone. She can see him light up at the sight of the other woman, tinged with anxiety for certain, but happy nonetheless. She could work with that.

"Dibs," she whispers playfully into his ear, kissing his cheek as she leaves his side to nearly run to Lorraine and throw her arms around the blonde. "We missed you."

"I can tell," she murmurs back, the smile blooming on her face and creeping into her voice. "You two have become quite the power couple."

"David knows people, and I know how to get along with people. It works."

"Good." She pulls back to cup Delphine's face in her hands. "I'd hate this plan to come crashing down because you two decided you couldn't stand each other."

"Me, too." She smiles, imagining possibilities. "But we figured it out. Maybe he'll even be human again one day."

"Enough, I heard that," David says, gently prying Delphine loose from Lorraine. "I resemble that remark, but that doesn't mean I appreciate it."

"Appreciate this, prick," Lorraine says, bear hugging him around the neck and taking a bite out of his ear at the same time. David yelps and jumps back, not sure if she's playing or not until he sees the twinkle in her eyes. He grins back.

"Foreplay could use some work, love, but you'll do."

"I thought a man like you would like it rough."

"Dear god, can you two keep your clothes on long enough for one drink?" Delphine interjects, feigning annoyance. "I swear, it's like you can't decide if you want each other dead or just really like bondage."

"You're the only one we know whose slept with both of us, why don't you have a guess?" David says. He pulls up short, eyes pained. "Fuck..." He turns back to Lorraine. "We never did talk about James."

"No, no we didn't."

"Do you two need me to leave you alone?" Delphine asks, worry clear on her face.

"Don't worry about it," Lorraine says, cutting across David. "Tonight, we enjoy our freedom. Whatever else comes, whatever shit hits a fan next, we have tonight. No pasts, no futures, just the music and the now."

"I'll drink to that," David says, passing her a glass.

"Me, too." The three of them clink their glasses, eyeing each other up over the tops of them as they drink. The silence stretches for a moment before Delphine takes them both by a hand.

"We'll figure it out. The three of us. David, why don't we start introducing her around. What name are you using right now?"

"Lori."

The other two smile. "I like it," David says, finishing his glass. "Suits you. Come on, then, time to meet a few people."


	4. Ghosts of Spies Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bonding moment between David and Lori

Lori sat by the window, cigarette in her hand, but she hadn’t lit it yet. She was trying to remember if she actually smoked or if that was just something she adopted to blend in.

“Me, too,” David says, coming to sit next to her. She took a moment to appreciate the muscle moving under taut skin. Whatever else he was, he took care of himself. “I still haven’t decided if I like smoking the damn things or if that was just a cover for something else.”

“Was I that obvious?” she asks, eyebrow raised.

“No. Phi and I have been trying to put ourselves back together while you were gone.” He shrugs, a little embarrassed. “I guess a lot of my ‘habits’ were either part of a cover or a bad way to cope.”

“Was that why you stopped womanizing all over the city, then?” She winces. “That- “

“No, it’s a valid question,” he says, taking the cigarette from her, still unlit, and throwing it onto the nightstand beside the bed Delphine was still asleep in. “I… Well, after James, I needed something. He and I were all we had more often than not. The embassies didn’t care what we had to say, and the official channels didn’t have anything to offer us. We kept each other safe and more or less sane. But… Well, you’d remember how you felt when you heard, I’m sure.”

“Numb,” Lori replies, eyes on the city outside her window. “Confused. I knew they couldn’t be mistaken, but I didn’t quite believe them, either.”

“James was the best, I know,” David says, apprehensively taking her hand. “I miss him terribly.”

She squeezes back, eyes tearing. “So do I.” She turns to him, looking him dead in the eye for the first time since the previous night. “He said he wanted to introduce me to the wildest man he’d ever met, that we’d all get along splendidly.” She chuckles. “I couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not until I actually met you.”

He laughs, remembering. “I had a similar experience. He called you the ice queen in the most endearing tone I’d ever heard him use. I remember thinking that he’d been trying to get me killed when he suggested introducing us.”

“I’m glad you think so highly of me. You’re no easy opponent yourself, Percival.”

“Maybe. But I’ve never pulled off anything quite like you did. Speaking of which…” His eyes cloud over with a little bit of pain and a whole world of worry. “You never did say what happened to the list.”

A grimace, a turn back to the window. “It’s safe. No one else has seen it. I haven’t decided what I want to do with it. Hopefully, the two of you have some ideas about that.”

“A few,” David replies, the worry clearing. “It’s a lot of bargaining power, and it just might be the start of something, if we leverage it right.”

A spark goes off in Lori’s eyes, along with the confusion. “The start of something, huh?”

He grins. “The start. I know Phi’s been writing. Poetry, music, lyrics, you name it.”

She returns the expression, eyes flashing. “I always said she should have been a poet.”

“I’m thinking rock star.”

“Sounds like something we can arrange. Any ideas where to start?”

“Breakfast, first, love,” he says, letting himself kiss her forehead on impulse, hoping she doesn’t punch him in the face on reflex. She doesn’t, and he grins again. “After that, if she’s awake, we take her out and start introducing her to some of the musicians I know. There’s more than a few bands looking for a front girl these days.”

“I can work with that,” Lori replies, still smiling. “First things first, though,” she says, the smile sliding off her face as her eyes dim from excitement to something like anxiety. “I… You… Oh, fuck it.” She leans in and kisses him, their lips just touching, none of the teeth or near violence of the night before. He freezes for just a moment, unsure how to react, before simply letting the moment ride and leaning into her, his arms coming up to wrap around her. Lori lets out a tiny moan and practically crawls into his lap, the kiss never changing, still just lips and the gentle connection between them. Until they hear a low laugh from the bed.

“If you two wanted to put on a show for me,” Phi says, voice still clogged from sleep, “it would’ve been polite to wake me up first.”

David manages to break the kiss just enough to look the shorter woman in the eyes. “If I wanted to put on a show for you, there would be more leather and lace involved, and you know it.”

Lori laughs, ribs shaking for a moment before both she and David shudder as his erection teases her, making Phi laugh again. Shaking her head, she gets up to kiss her spies once each on the forehead, saying, “Have your time, you two. I’m going to get breakfast ready.” Still chuckling to herself, Phi throws on a robe and heads out the door, presumably heading to the kitchen downstairs, leaving the other two staring intently at each other, not quite sure what the next move is.

David is the first to try and break the silence, clearing his throat and saying, “You know, I think our problem is that we think a little too much. Cause, effect, action, reaction, consequences. We need to learn how to- oh fuuuuuck…” The rest of his sentence cuts off as Lori tilts her hips forward, taking him into her for the first time. He manages to focus after a moment, staring into her eyes.

“You didn’t even do this last-“ She silences him with a kiss, and they both moan into it as the motion takes her farther forward and him deeper inside her.

“Stop talking,” she says, slowly rocking her hips against him. “I want to eat breakfast with our rock star girlfriend, and you talking will only make it take longer.”


End file.
